Streetball Tips

Ball-Handling Tips

• The best way to improve your overall game is by improving your ball-handling skills, especially dribbling. Handling the ball effectively will give your opponent a more difficult time taking possession of the basketball.
  
  Dribble with your fingertips, not the palm of your hand. Check your palm after a game. If only your fingers are dirty, you're doing it right.
  
  Dribble hard. This will reduce the amount of time that your opponent has to steal the ball and increase the odds in your favor.
  
  Dribble without looking at the ball and pass the ball often to an open teammate.
  
  

Wear the Right Shoes

• The soles of your feet should not hurt after a game or practice session. If they do, you are wearing shoes unsuitable to properly support your weight.
  
  Shoes should fit snugly to prevent rolling when landing. Shoes made especially for basketball allow you to move with ease, feel the court, reduce impact and increase speed.
  
  

Improve Your Jump

• Jumping is a movement that requires extreme strength and power that can be improved with training. The best exercises to increase jump height are lunges and squats. Both exercises involve the knee and the hip, both of which are needed to improve jump height.
  
  Weighted box jumps are somewhat tricky, but are used by NBA and Olympic athletes to improve jump height. Hold five- to 10-pound dumbbells with your arms straight. Standing in front of a box that is about 16 inches high and will easily hold your weight, jump upward and forward. Land on the box as softly as possible. Step down and repeat until you've completed three sets of 10. This will seem awkward and clumsy at first but will become easier as the proper muscles begin to strengthen.
  
  

Improve Your Shooting Arc

• When practicing, picture the arc in the path the basketball will follow in order to reach the basket. Shoot by moving your arm upward instead of forward. This will add more height to your shot. Release the ball with your fingers. Ideally, the basketball should land softly to avoid a hard bounce off the rim.
  
  The more control you have over the ball, the better chance you have of getting it to go exactly where you want it to.